Stephen Constantine insists Indian football deserve huge crowd turnouts

"Look, I have said it before and I don't feel that we should be begging people to come and watch the national team. The response today was unbelievable, what I expect from the Blue Pilgrims and the rest of the people, it's not only the Blue Pilgrims. But the national team is playing in the manner, we've been playing for last three and half years, and the things that we have achieved in three and half years, (and) we still feel disappointed to see such a crowd in the last game. Today I thank every single one of them and I expect them to be here for the following two games," Constantine was quoted as saying by PTI.

Chhetri's video on twitter touched the hearts of Mumbaikars, who turned up in numbers for the game against Kenya, after not showing up in huge numbers in the tournament opener. From 2000 in the game against Chinese Taipei, the number of fans swelled to almost 9000 for the last night's match, pretty impressive for a stadium that can accommodate around 10000 people. It was Chhetri's 100th international game and he made it memorable by scoring a brace and guiding India into the final with a 3-0 win. Constantine said that he was delighted over this win and for Chhetri.

"Firstly I am going to congratulate the boys for a hard-fought win. Difficult conditions obviously because with the rain, we couldn't play particularly well in the first half, gave them too much space, difficult to play in those conditions. By the way another clean-sheet, thank you (pointing towards Sandesh Jhinghan). It takes us into the final of this tournament, which is what we wanted to achieve from the beginning. (Focus on) next game (now)," noted Constantine.